The elite class.
That soporific lecture voice still droned in the air. Under the heavy mood, the pothos on the windowsill drooped its wide leaves, looking rather dispirited.
Naruto copied notes with real effort and a pained face. He glanced at the solemn Konome beside him, thought of something, and put away his laziness to keep writing.
School Konome kept her features taut while her Byakugan watched the restroom from afar. Seeing the true body leave satisfied, she watched Hinata in tears cleaning the mess under her. When Hinata finally straightened and slumped against the hard backrest, today's wooden chair felt ridiculously comfortable.
The true body had done the job and withdrawn.
Everything had gone smoothly. Hinata before her growth was nothing like the girl who faced Pain. A supposed Hyuga heiress bullied by village kids without a trace of resistance, someone like that could only submit when confronted with the true body's inhuman horror.
School Konome ran through the plan in her head and found no gaps. With both the true body and the clone using Byakugan, they had thrown a massive visual net over the area and left no room for accidents.
The last piece remained. Prideful and difficult Neji would be left to the true body, while the clone would handle Hinata's taming and the intake of main-family secrets.
Shadow Clone really was absurdly useful. As one of the clones, School Konome meant it. The Second Hokage had been a staggering genius. The more she swam the ocean of ninjutsu, the more dazzling Tobirama's genius became. Flying Thunder God, Shadow Clone, Edo Tensei. Every one of them stood shoulder to shoulder with bloodline techniques, the very opposite pole from the First.
If someone could blend Hashirama's might with Tobirama's mind, that would be the true God of Shinobi.
School Konome brushed her cheek with a fingertip. At present, the only one in the world who might do it was probably herself.
Heh.
She let herself laugh inside. Her Byakugan never left Hinata in the distance. If anything went wrong, this clone still had one last job. Draw Konoha's attention. Stall for time. Alert the true body to open the Eight Gates and run on burning muscle.
At that speed, with reduced weight from blazing muscle, almost no one in Konoha could stop her.
Speaking of which, Water Release form development had hit a few snags. The Water Konome clone had tried to imitate Gaara's sand tray and gain flight on water alone. Self weight killed it, and water's flowing nature could not bear the load. She tried bird forms next and failed again. Water's flow was a boon and a flaw. Push it and it deforms, far too unstable to maintain shape. Tortoise and bird were a poor fit for Water Release. By test, fish, serpent, and net forms were excellent.
The water spiderweb the true body used to terrify Hinata had been the Water clone's biggest breakthrough in days. It was not just for scaring people. Nets, with open mesh, cut air resistance during capture, and the spider's woven pattern multiplied toughness. It lacked the crashing force of a simulated breaker, but its practicality soared.
That success had the Water clone euphoric. No longer stuck on beasts and tools, she wanted to model anything she saw in water to see how it behaved. Chakra costs rose like a tide, but the true body's Eight Gates helped. Before the Gate of Pain, the technique did not harm the body. It gathered life force that would otherwise leak away and turned it into chakra.
The true body's reserves had grown these days. From brushing the jōnin threshold to the mid range of jōnin. One step into the Gate of Pain and her chakra would surpass Hatake Kakashi.
Call it one Kaka.
En.
Why did that suddenly make her feel like trash?
Devouring a Tailed Beast and training the Eight Gates sounded savage one after another, yet her pool was only about equal to the most chakra starved Kakashi.
Knock knock knock.
There was a rap on the classroom door. Iruka paused on the dais, and every sleepy student looked up.
"Come in."
The green door swung open. Head lowered, Hinata stepped in from the hall, her clothes and pants soaked in wide patches, a picture of misery. Iruka's annoyance at being interrupted again melted into concern.
"Hinata, what happened to you?"
"I..."
All eyes pinned Hinata, especially the nightmare shape in the back row. Her heart cramped. Those pale eyes skittered like a startled fawn.
School Konome narrowed her eyes, watching Hinata's lips tremble. Beneath the band across her eyes, death gray pupils surged with blood red killing intent. She bared her teeth and ran her tongue over a canine.
Hinata flinched hard. It felt like a beast had locked onto her and that one more step would trigger the hunt.
"I... I slipped washing my face."
It was a flimsy lie. Hinata dared not even glance at the man eater in the back row. Iruka's eyes tracked the damp marks on her clothes. Given Hinata's shy, soft voice, he noticed nothing amiss. He only thought she looked overly pale and unwell.
"Do you want to go home and change?"
"No."
Hinata shook her head too fast. Konome's order was to copy out the Eight Trigrams training atlas and finish today. If she went home, the only option left would be to disappear on the way.
Refusing temptation, Hinata hurried back to her seat. The cold wet fabric clung to her, but even the chill could not match the killing intent behind her. Ino leaned over, worried.
"You okay, Hinata?"
"I am... fine."
Afraid the monster would mark Ino next, Hinata kept quiet, opened her notebook, and began copying the Eight Trigrams.
The bell rang. Then another. Three periods passed. Noise roared as kids poured into break, yet two people remained perfectly quiet. One copied. One watched. They felt like the only two in the same world.
The pen whispered across paper. Click. The cap snapped on. Hinata looked at ten pages of sketches. She only dared reproduce this much of the atlas from memory. If the clan discovered she had leaked a secret, her father would cast her out or kill her outright.
Thinking of what might come, Hinata pressed her lips tight as tears welled again. She wiped her eyes, shut the notebook, stood, and looked to Konome in the back. Under every gaze in the class, she hugged the notebook to her chest and walked to Konome.
"F... for you."
"Thank you."
School Konome took the notebook with a bright eight tooth smile. A portion of the Eight Trigrams secret had changed hands, and Hinata stood caught with crime and evidence both. To spread a clan secret was so grave a charge that even Hyuga Hiashi would face censure.
Hinata could no longer resist.
"Hyuga, you did well."
Hinata's eyes went red. Her father never gave approval. To hear the praise she had always wanted from Konome of all people only made her heart sink further.
"Work hard from now on."
"Under... yes."
Head bowed, she was learning fast.
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